Bill Text: NJ A139 | 2024-2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Repeals sections of law pertaining to transfer of civil service and non-civil service employees of terminated local health agency to superseding agency.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-09 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly State and Local Government Committee [A139 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2024-A139-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
221st LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2024 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblywoman DAWN FANTASIA
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
Assemblyman MICHAEL INGANAMORT
District 24 (Morris, Sussex and Warren)
SYNOPSIS
Repeals sections of law pertaining to transfer of civil service and non-civil service employees of terminated local health agency to superseding agency.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning employees of local health agencies and repealing sections 16 and 17 of P.L.1975, c.329.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. Sections 16 and 17 of P.L.1975, c.329 (C.26:3A2-16 and C.26:3A2-17) are repealed.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill repeals sections 16 and 17 of P.L.1975, c.329 (C.26:3A2-16 and C.26:3A2-17), which provide that each full-time employee of a local health agency whose employment is governed by the provisions of the Civil Service law, and each full-time employee for a period of 2 years or more of a local health agency whose employment is not governed by the provisions of the Civil Service law, and whose employment by such agency shall have been terminated by reason of the assumption of its activities and responsibilities by another local health agency, shall be transferred to such other local agency, shall be assigned duties comparable to those previously performed by the employee, and shall be entitled to and credited with all rights and privileges accruing to the employee by reason of his or her tenure in the previous office or position, the same as if the entire period of previous employment had been in the position to which the employee was transferred, as well as compensation fixed at not less than the amount received by the employee at the time of transfer.
Section 17 of P.L.1975, c.329 (C.26:3A2-17) also provides that when a full-time employee for a period of 2 years or more of a local health agency whose employment is not governed by the provisions of the Civil Service law is transferred to a superseding health department subject to the provisions of the Civil Service law, the board shall forthwith certify to the Civil Service Commission (now the Merit System Board) the entitlement of the employee to Civil Service rights and privileges, and shall appropriately classify the employee in the competitive civil service without examination. The employee shall thereafter be subject to the provisions of the Civil Service law with regard to the terms of his or her employment, promotion, tenure, classification, compensation and like matters, as well as compensation fixed at not less than the amount received by the employee at the time of transfer.
It is the opinion of the sponsor that, as the State is urging smaller municipalities to merge or share services in order to make government in New Jersey more efficient and to lower the tax burden, and the Governor's budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2009 penalizes smaller municipalities by reducing their Consolidated Municipal Property Tax Relief Aid to compel smaller municipalities to consolidate, the above sections of law should be repealed to allow municipalities and counties to achieve cost savings through the consolidation of local health agencies at the county and regional level. The sponsor argues that if a municipality will be penalized with loss of aid for being too small, it ought to be given tools to rectify the loss.
